Month: June 2013

Many thanks to those heroes who died for us so that until now; we can continue to carry that pride in our hearts and minds.

How ironic is it that two words that make up “independence” mean precisely the opposite? What stand between “independence” and “in dependence” is just a little space that brings a world apart in meaning.

My country has been officially independent for… oh, how many years now? Are we counting from World War 2 or insisting the year Aguinaldo raised the flag over a hundred year ago? Does it matter? For the average Filipino, does independence really mean anything apart from day off school or work?

When you think about it, my country, far from standing strong on her own, is rather deeply “in dependence” of a multitude of things-the goodwill of nature not to send us any more natural disasters, the billion of dollars sent by overseas workers whom we cannot convince to stay in the country, a government that seems to exist only for the purpose of stealing from the people who depend most on it.

Which beg the question: Can’t we count on ourselves for anything?

As an independent nation, we are free to make of our lives what we want. We are free to build the kind of country we want. But we would still be heading nowhere if we don’t first find out what truly went wrong in the last 115th year, and accept and address these costly mistakes. We need to work harder to unfetter ourselves from the chains that keep us from being truly free. Only then can we start charting a new course toward a truly independent Philippines.